A Sad Day For Gourmet-10/5/09

Before I began cooking tonight's dinner, a friend of mine sent me a link to a news article from this morning that said that Conde Nast, the parent company of Gourmet, has announced the closing of Gourmet magazine. November will be the last issue of Gourmet published. This ends almost 60 years of an outstanding magazine that pushed the barriers of both food and culture. I, for one, will miss it, though not nearly as much as those to whom this magazine was their livelihood. My heart goes out to Ruth Reichl and her outstanding staff who put together a quality publication month after month. My dearest wish is that each person affected by this loss will soon find their rightful place back in the world of food publishing and media. Each article I read stated the profound effect of the weak economy on publishing in general and that Gourmet and the 3 other magazines that were cancelled with it were an unfortunate casualty of the current climate.

I will take a few lines to put in my naive two cents. It would be presumptuous to say I saw this coming but I had read several month ago that the magazine might close. It was strongly refuted at the time by those commenting on the article but I could see why someone might think that Gourmet was losing its edge. Don't get me wrong. I love the magazine and always have but there were logical reasons for its demise. Gourmet is not a ideal "newsstand" magazine, putting it at a severe disadvantage when attracting new readership. Compare Gourmet to say recent upstart Cooking Light. Cooking Light sits on the magazine rack in the checkout, often right next to some popular magazine carrying an article about the latest winner on the hit TV show "The Biggest Loser". In a culture that is in desperate need of slimming down, Cooking Light immediately addresses that need and loudly proclaims that it can. Think of the cover of Gourmet as well. Even I, who love great photography though I obviously can't produce it myself, was a bit surprised to see a fuzzy green quince on the cover of the September issue. Very few Americans are going to look at a fuzzy unfamiliar fruit and think "You know, I'll made that for dinner." Heck, I really tried and I couldn't even find quince. Gourmet has just not concerned itself much with attracting newsstand customers with the cover recipe.

All this being said, I have made a decision about my Gourmet project. Obviously, making a year's worth of Gourmet's recipes won't happen. 9 months just doesn't have the same ring but I will continue to make as many recipes from the last issues of Gourmet as I can. I may not make the effort to go back and finish all of June's recipes that I missed like I planned. (No grilled cactus paddles for Eyrleigh) But I will still have fun making the recipes of Gourmet. I may not make 4 different Thanksgiving menus, something I was already a bit nervous about but I will make what looks good and will help me learn. I never committed the blog to be forever about one cooking magazine so I may simply switch magazines, though I may not begin with another before the new year. Ah, but I will miss you, Gourmet!

Tonight I made two recipes from the October Gourmet. I had actually planned to make these recipes Friday but we added a little kitty from the shelter to our family on Friday so the evening got away from me. The Chicken and Dumplings on page 131 were a yummy one pot meal for the evening. The addition of cremini mushrooms gave the broth a earthy, complex flavor and added a rich brown color to the bowl. I always found chicken and dumplings a wonderful comfort food and this recipe was just that. The dumplings were soft but firm. I found the poached chicken a bit dry but the ratio of chicken to dumplings was good, though I should have made my dumplings a bit smaller. The dill in the dumplings added a nice note.

I made the Rich Chocolate Mousse for dessert and I should capitalize the entire word rich. Wow! This was a very good mousse in small quantities and though the number of beaten ingredients got a little over the top, it really was pretty easy to simply rinse the bowl and the beaters and add the next thing. Using raw eggs always makes me a bit nervous but I'm sure they are pasteurized so it's no issue. Eyrleigh though this dish was a little much,too. After a few bites, she claimed it was too spicy, her go-to phrase for something she doesn't want any more of.

Chicken and Dumplings-B+

Rich Chocolate Mousse-B

My Pages are Already Sticking Together-10/1/09

Each month I take a perfectly good Gourmet magazine and make it look like a used dish towel. I've seen those pretty plastic stands that can protect the pages of your cookbook or magazine as you whirl like a dervish around the kitchen but they are not for me. I almost pride myself in how unbelievably messy I can make a book look after just one dinner in my kitchen. Even my cookbooks have warped pages and odd unidentifiable stains. It's the sign of a dedicated cook... or a really messy one. I'll call myself the latter.

Tonight I made only one recipe from my new October Gourmet and tonight when I came upstairs to post to the blog, I had to carefully pull the pages apart so as not to rip the other recipes on the page I haven't made yet. I made the Portobello Buffalo Burgers with Celery Apple Slaw on page 128. They were not the prettiest burgers I've ever made but I got to reuse the homemade ketchup, mustard, relish, and buns I'd made earlier in the week. Portobellos get really black when you cook them and these burgers looked burned to a crisp. They weren't. It was just the black mushrooms but it was a little disconcerting. I liked the burgers though. The earthiness of the mushrooms was a good compliment to the gamier taste of the buffalo and I really liked the flavor. The slaw was also a good contrast, the sweet apples worked well with the more bitter celery. This was a pretty simple dish that would work well to change up the weekday burger but again, I wouldn't serve it to guests because of the black burnt look of the burgers.

Portobello Buffalo Burgers with Celery Apple Slaw-B